Watchdog Online

Rainy spring, cold winter help buoy Great Lakes levels

Brad Davis of Hartland gets off his dinghy on Monday after returning from his sailboat at Milwaukee’s South Shore Yacht Club. Before the water levels rose this year, it was a much steeper climb back to the landing.

Since 2003, reporter Dan Egan has been reporting on threats facing the lakes. His groundbreaking work has shown the damage caused by invasive species and has laid out the bold steps that could be taken to restore and protect the world’s largest freshwater system.

At Milwaukee's South Shore Yacht Club, it means members won't have to worry about running aground on that sandbar just outside the marina.

Bruce Nason, the club's past commodore and a 37-year member, said he and his 36-foot Catalina Cruiser "Slowdance," have been lucky when dealing with water levels the last few years. But others have not been so fortunate.

Last summer, Nason said, some racing sailboats with 8- to 10-foot keels were hitting the sandbar or colliding with other underwater obstructions.

"This year, we have 12 feet of water at the end of our slips, so it didn't pose any problems," he said. "Last year, we had a number of boats that would either have to stay on moorings or some of them even anchored at Discovery World where the water is considerably deeper."

Ice and rain raise levels

Due to the melting snow and ice and the excessive rainfall this spring, water levels around the Great Lakes have bounced back to above average levels, with Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron levels roughly a foot higher than a year ago.

As of March this year, about 92% of the Great Lakes were covered in ice, the second highest percentage on record. Lake Superior was the last to clear. It was the second week of June before the ice fully melted, the latest since the spring of 2003.

Aside from Lakes Michigan and Huron, all of the Great Lakes were above average at the end of June, according to Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Detroit office.

Lake Michigan is at its highest level since the late 1990s and, like Lake Huron, about 14 inches above last year's July average, according to the most recent weekly update from the Army Corps.

Levels for both are above the long-term average as of mid-July and are projected to increase roughly an inch by August.

Lake Superior is in its fourth month of above-average levels, something that hasn't been seen since 1998. The lake is forecast this fall to remain above last year's levels, but slightly below the long-term averages.

Rain is a big factor. In Milwaukee, for example, it rained nearly 20 days with 6.34 inches in June — double the monthly average, according to the National Weather Service. So far this year, the Milwaukee area has accumulated more than 18 inches of rain. That's actually less than the same point last year.

"Two consecutive years of very wet conditions have allowed the levels of the Great Lakes to rise much more than they usually do in the spring," Kompoltowicz said.

Less dredging required

Milwaukee docks are not the only ones that have reaped the benefits of higher water.

In Door County, the Baileys Harbor Marina is no longer feeling the squeeze of the all-time low levels it experienced in recent years.

"The last number of years we've had to dredge to the tune of $50,000 to $80,000 each time," said John Hammarstrom, harbor master. "We did dredge in February, but seeing as how the water has risen, we really didn't need to."

In Muskegon, Mich., marina water levels are up, according to Nicky Anderson, Muskegon Yacht Club facilities manager. Last year, dredging costs put the marina well over budget.

And in Marquette, Mich., water levels on Lake Superior are nearly a foot higher than a year ago, according to Mike Carl, manager of both the Presque Isle and Cinder Pond marinas. He is seeing 60- and 70-foot boats cruise through the harbor with ease.

"The downfall is our season started a little late because of all the ice," he said.

Cloud cover a factor

Evaporation is the No. 1 culprit when it comes to the Great Lakes' loss of water.

But thanks to the region's cooler-than-average air and water temperatures as of late, the higher levels could be sticking around come fall.

Researchers increasingly are focusing on how cloud coverage can affect evaporation, according to Brent Lofgren, a physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The 14-year span of lower-than-average levels from 1998 to 2012 coincided with a period of low cloud coverage across the region, which may have accounted for increased evaporation, he said.

As of last week, water temperatures in southern Lake Michigan were at 53 degrees.

"This is well below the historical normal which is about 65 (degrees), so we are well below where we've been for the past 10 to 15 years," said Paul Roebber, a meteorologist and associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences.

"As a result of that, evaporation is a lot less. So we would expect, all else being equal, for the lake levels to rise from previous years."

The highest water levels recorded on all five lakes were in 1986, when they were roughly two to three feet higher than today's average.

"Is it possible for us to get back to that level? Yes," he said. "Will that happen this year? No."

Water levels on the Great Lakes are cyclical and fluctuate naturally every year. And though levels are rising, the lakes still have a long way to go to maintain a level above the long-term historical average.

Although heavy ice build-up on the St. Lawrence Seaway shortened the shipping season by more than a week this year, increased water levels could compensate and allow ships to bulk up their loads without fear of draft, according to Kompoltowicz.

Low water levels in recent years have prevented the shipping industry from operating at full capacity, making some ships opt for lighter cargo loads due to problems with draft — the distance between the water line and bottom of a ship's hull — in shallow shipping lanes. In these cases, dredging has been necessary to make shipping lanes deeper.

Other than regular maintenance dredging at ports, no dredging to deepen shipping routes should be needed this year, Kompoltowicz said.

Back at South Shore Yacht Club, Nason can board his boat with ease.

"McKinley Marina has floating docks where the boats are moored and we have fixed-height docks," he said. "When the water was low, it presented a lot of problems for people to get on and off their boats."